The call John Salter had hoped for came at an unexÂ­pected moment. It came, in fact, as the Gardendale native was stepping out of his car with a Mountain Dew in his hand to go watch a movie.

It also came when Salter, a relatively new Mixed MarÂ­tial Arts (MMA) fighter hopÂ­ing to find an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) opportunity, had scaled back his training to concentrate on helping out with the Thompson High wrestling team.

Things changed quickly after he answered the phone call from his coach, Mike Taylor at Headhunters Combatives MMA in TuscaÂ­loosa.

"He said, 'What are you doing on Monday?' " the 25-year-old Salter recalled. "I told him I was going to coach . . . we got a match. He goes, 'The UFC just called and wants you to fight.' I put my Mountain Dew down and said sure. It's one of those things. I knew I wasn't going to be in shape but you can't turn the UFC down."

His first shot at fighting at the top MMA level didn't end with a storybook finish. Salter made it to the third round before running out of steam and losing by TKO to Gerald Harris as part of a UFC Fight Night card in January. But it was a start and that's all Salter needed.

The 6-foot, 185-pound Salter beat veteran Jason Macdonald in the first round of the UFC bout in the 113 event in Montreal. The match was stopped when Macdonald broke bones in his leg and ankle during a takedown by Salter. Salter is now training for a bout against veteran Phil Baroni in a match that is scheduled for the main card of UFC 118 on Aug. 28 in Boston.

In a way, Salter is an unlikely MMA pioneer in the state of Alabama. He is believed to be the first Alabama fighter to earn a spot in the UFC, according to Taylor. Chris Davis, who is from Gadsden and is Salter's training partner at Headhunters MMA, is close to receiving the opportunity but, for now, Salter is the only Alabama representative.

"Chris Davis, he's good enough to fight in the UFC right now. It's just they don't take a lot of chances on people from Alabama," said Salter. "Hopefully I'll pave the way and they'll start coming and looking at other guys because we have a lot of great fighters here."

Salter's sports passion is wrestling. He began competing in the sport at the age of 12. He was a state champion at Gardendale High and won an NAIA championship in the 174-pound division at Lindenwood (Mo.) University.

His introduction to MMA came while at Lindenwood. His roommate was from Huntington Beach, Calif., which is where UFC star Tito Ortiz grew up. Salter said he started watching videos of Ortiz and was soon hooked on the sport. But even then, he considered the sport "a hobby."

After graduating from Lindenwood with a political science degree, he began working on his MBA at UAB. He also remained heavily involved with wrestling by putting on youth clinics and coaching in high school.

His dedication to MMA increased with his success. He was 7-0 as an amateur, largely relying on his wrestling expertise, but it wasn't until he won his professional debut in March of 2009 that he realized he wanted to stay in the sport for a while.

Part of the process included transforming himself from a natural right-hander into a left-hander, so he could maintain the same stance he used in wrestling.

"For two years, he ate lefthanded, threw the ball to his dog left-handed, did everything left-handed," Taylor said. "He taught himself to be a left-hander. That's the difference between a state champion and a national champion. A national champion says, "I'm not going to change my (wrestling takedown).' " One thing he didn't change was his approach to life. Salter, who wears his Christian belief on his sleeve, said the sport is not nearly as brutal as many think.

"I've been a Christian since I was seven years old," Salter said. "God's helped me so much and blessed me with the ability to do this kind of thing. I want people to realize that MMA is not cage fighting. It's a sport. I'm a very outgoing Christian person and all my friends are the same way. We try to get along with everybody. I think it is very important to talk about it to make sure people know what I'm like outside the cage."

Salter hopes his UFC career will be long but knows it's a fickle business. A loss to Macdonald would have probably got him cut from the UFC roster. The win meant he still gets a shot to show he belongs, which Taylor says is well deserved.

"People overlooked him because he's from the South," Taylor said. "He got the attention because of merit, not because he got on the 'Ultimate Fighter' TV show and threw a chair through a wall. He got noted because of his record, his training history and for merit, not because of drama."